The old way of drying your clothes

We do have a dryer, it came with the house when we bought it (it’s 30 years old and probably qualifies for this photo hunt theme too!), but we sometimes dry our clothes the old fashioned way on a clothes line in the backyard.

I don’t think that there as many people using clothes lines these days as there used to be. I grew up with my parents using a clothes line or later one of those odd large metal umbrella looking things in our backyard and when we moved into this neighborhood we noticed that most of our neighbors (all the closest are in their 80’s) used clothes lines.

Our house had a clothes line but it wasn’t in good shape. The actual line was sagging and the wheel was rusted. We got a new set up and one of our neighbors showed us how to tighten up the line properly.

We rarely dry anything on the line in the winter. Well not unless I want a stiff frozen piece of laundry! I think I have used it in the winter once or twice though when it’s been unseasonably warm. Mostly the clothes line is just a great place for the birds to hang out in the winter.

In the summer we use the clothes line quite a bit. Unlike some of our neighbors we don’t dry our under garments on the line. No one needs to see those! We tend not to dry towels or sheets on the line either as they aren’t as soft when dried on the line as they are when they’re dried in a dryer. We do dry all of our cotton clothes on the line though and that makes up the bulk of most of our laundry during the summer.

The clothes smell so fresh and clean when they are dried outside! Oh and did you know that the sun is a great way to keep white clothes bright and clean? It naturally bleaches the clothes.

Since our dryer is ancient and I’m sure its an energy hog we also save a lot of money by drying a good portion of our clothing on the line during the warmer months. In the winter I often hang clothes in the basement to dry instead of using the dryer for everything.

Where I come from, maybe 70% of people still dry their clothes on the clothes line or more commonly the ‘bamboo stick’.
Definately will prefer to ‘sun-tan’ my quit blanket on a sunny day than throw into my dryer 🙂

Excellent!!!! [but does it ever look COLD outside!!!] I’m still old fashioned enough to continue to dry my bedding outdoors…I just love the fragrance of them when they’re dried in open air instead of a dryer!!!

Mine is posted, I hope you can drop by. I love visitors. Happy weekend.

I remember those days back growing up in Arkansas. ONe of my chores was to bring in the clothes from the line and fold them. Of course I hated doing it. Now in retrospect, I remember how great they smelled. But they were stiff. Then I vaguely remember when dryers were made and we got one. Everything from the dryer was so soft. But the clothes didn’t last as long and the colors became dingy. I had to chucke when you said you didn’t hang under garments. Yea, I wouldn’t do that either.

Reading this post and all the comments sure brought back lots of memories.

I have hung and brought in thousands of loads of clothes from the clothesline. That is the best way to dry clothes. We don’t hand underwear on the line either, but when I was a child that’s the only way there was to dry them. I remember bringing in clothes off Grandma’s line that were frozen stiff. We then hung them in the summer kitchen to dry out a bit, but ironed them while they were still damp. Grandma used flatirons that were heated on the woodstove.

I still hang clothes out during the summer months, but not in the winter. Guess we are spoiled with the dryers. There is nothing as nice as slipping between sheets that have been dried on a clothesline.

I remember hanging clothes out on the line with my grandma when I was a little kid. It was kind of our time to do something together and it’s amazing that almost 30 years later I really miss it. The “old” ways to do chores could bring a family together it’s just to bad that we keep losing that connection.

Questnet … how ironic as I’m actually doing without a washing machine (at least in my home (we use a laundromat) as mine broke down in July! As for the clothes line we’ve used one every since we moved in to our house. We have a very old dryer and I’m sure it uses a ton of energy compared to newer models (we can’t afford to buy a new washer right now let alone a dryer) so we use the clothes line quite often. I still like to dry towels and blankets in the dryer though as they come out softer.